Monday, December 29, 2008
What I Also Did on Christmas Day
29-DEC-2008:
I forgot to mention this in my previous post. I've been reading 'The Templar Legacy' by Steve Berry and on Christmas eve, I finished the book. Now, everyone knows that the core belief of the Christians is that Jesus died to save sinners and on the 3rd day, he was resurrected. Well, this book actually challenged the resurrection - whether it is a myth or reality. Isn't it a coincidence that I happened to read this on Christmas eve?
Below is an excerpt from the book. Bear in mind that I did not write any of it and it doesn't represent my own opinions.
The heart of Christianity is the resurrection of physical bodies. It's the fulfillment of the Old Testament promise. If Christians will not one day be resurrected, then their faith is useless. No resurrection means the Gospels are all a lie - the Christian faith is only for this life - there's no more after. It's the resurrection that makes everything performed for Christ worthwhile. Other religions preach about paradise and afterlife. But only Christianity offers a God who became man, died for His followers, then rose from the dead to rule forever.
Christians can have a lot of different beliefs in a lot of subjects. But they all agree on the resurrection. It's their universal constant. Jesus rose from the dead for them alone. Death was conquered for them alone. Christ is alive and working toward their redemption. The kingdom of heaven is waiting for them, as they too, will be raised from the dead to live forever with the Lord. There's meaning in every tragedy since the resurrection gives hope for the future.
What if that never happened? What if Christ simply died dust to dust?
Is it true? That Christians believe the resurrection was physical? I'm new to this but I've always thought it was more spiritual than physical. Is it true that the Christians believe that they too will one day be raised from the dead to live forever with the Lord?
After that, I spent several hours reading the Old Testament (whereas before this I had no idea what the Old Testament vs. the New Testament was).
In the end, the conclusion of the book was that Jesus was never physically resurrected (bear in mind that this is only fiction and should not be taken seriously), but his followers who believed in him breathed life into his message and made it live. Here's another except from the book:
In that simple way, death could not contain the man Jesus. A resurrection would occur. Not literal, but spiritual. And within the mind of Simon, the man Jesus had arisen - he lived again - and from that singular beginning, during an autumn six months after the man Jesus was executed, the Christian Church was born.
It has served us well, this myth of Christ. - Pope Leo X (1513 - 1521).
In my opinion, 'The Templar Legacy' is simply better than 'Da Vinci Code'!
